One door closes and another one opens. Recently, it has been announced that Japanese star "Kid" Yamamoto was forced to withdraw from his scheduled bantamweight bout with Chris Cariaso when he was plagued by injury. However, an adequate replacement has been found as bantamweight prospect Michael McDonald has agreed to step up on short notice for the pay-per-view event: ufc 130, which takes place on May 28th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. ...

Former K-1 Heroes lightweight champion and all around Japanese mixed martial arts legend, Norifumi Yamamoto is now out of his previously scheduled bout with Chris Cariaso. The two bantamweights were originally expected to meet at UFC 130, a pay-per-view event which takes place on May 28th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The main-event of the evening will pit champion Frankie Edgar against rival Gray Maynard in their rubber match. Yamamoto was forced to withdraw from the match-up recently when he suffered an injury leading into his May bantamweight tussle. ...

Former K-1 Heroes champion, "Kid" Yamamoto will have the chance try to and make good on his second impression with the UFC when he takes on Chris Cariaso this May. In his first bout with the juggernaut mixed martial arts promotion, Yamamoto was defeated in somewhat of an upset when the smaller, yet faster, Demetrious "Might Mouse" Johnson took home a dominating decision win over the Japanese legend last February for "UFC 126: Silva vs. Belfort". Yamamoto, a talented collegiate wrestler, was thrown off by Johnson's takedowns and was unable to find momentum in the bout. Hoping to utilize more of his wrestling pedigree, "Kid" will have the chance to do just that when he takes on Cariaso in one of the larger pay-per-view events of the year. ...

"Punk" Josh Thomson (15-2) won a five-round unanimous decision over "El Niño" Gilbert Melendez (14-2) for the Strikeforce lightweight title Friday night in San Jose by scores of 50-45 on all three cards. "[Melendez] is the toughest motherfucker I've ever fought," Thomson declared after dominating the former top ten 155-pounder. In the final round, Thomson landed a front kick to Melendez's face as if to say, "All night, Gil" All night, Thomson kept Melendez at bay with a front kick. And, when Melendez passed that, he got zapped with a jab, and a hammered with a knee after that. Melendez stalked for five rounds, right hand cocked; but, Thomson never set long enough for Melendez to get a beat on him with his knockout punch. In the fourth and fifth rounds, Thomson shot and scored takedowns, nearly finding a rear naked choke as the fourth round dinged closed. But, Melendez was just out-kickboxed in every round and gassed trying to corner Thomson for the big shot. Stack Attacks Palacios Crowd favorite Bobby Stack (5-1) out-wrestled lightweight San Shou fighter Jose Palacios (3-1) over three rounds for a UD by scores of 29-28 three times. The southpaw Palacios's right hook over Stack's jab convinced Stack to take the fight to the mat after that punch popped Stack's mouthpiece free in the first round. Stack took damage for the single-leg shots, but muscled Palacios down and nearly sank an armbar with 25 seconds left in round two. Stack declined the stand-up again in the third session and rode Palacios across the mat most of the round, though Palacios defended adeptly. The "W" was sealed in the last half of the round when Stack mounted and landed shots to Palcios's head. ...

The rules are abundantly clear: in mixed martial arts, a fighter is not permitted to deliver an elbow in a downward motion (ceiling to floor).  Nor is a fighter allowed to strike an opponent behind the back of the head. “The Diamond” Malaipet Sitprapom (3-2) did both in the closing seconds of the first round against “Wildman” Thomas Denny (26-16) Friday in the main event of ShoXC: Elite Challenger Series on Showtime, and was disqualified. "I’m sorry because I came here to fight, but this is MMA and you have to follow the rules," said Denny, who could not continue after he was nailed by three blatant elbows to the back of the head.  "I may have been dazed but I wasn’t knocked out.  One thing I could not do, however, was move my neck." Knowing his advantage on the ground, Denny took Malaipet to the ground in the opening seconds and kept him there for more than four and a half minutes of the initial five-minute session. At one point in the 160-pound fight, it appeared that Malaipet would get choked out, but he rallied to work his way out of it and managed to continue.  Denny quickly locked him up again and tried to take matters back to the ground.  A frustrated Malaipet then committed the three flagrant fouls. Denny was given a few minutes to recover, but when he couldn’t the fight was called at the 4:51 mark. "Malaipet was tough because I thought I had him with the rear naked choke," Denny said.  "But I will definitely fight him again.  I was totally dominating." A world-class superstar Muay Thai kickboxer with reportedly more than 300 Muay Thai fights, Malaipet had a three-fight MMA winning streak end. "I definitely want to fight him again," Malaipet said.  "If he wants to do it at 150 pounds, I’ll fight him any time, any place.  This wasn’t my type of fight.  But there was no way I was ever going to tap out." In other televised bouts, Conor Heun (7-2) won an unpopular, unanimous decision over Marlon Mathias (5-2); Jaime Fletcher (6-3) recorded an upset points victory over Aaron Rosa (10-2); Shane Del Rosario (4-0) scored an opening-round knockout over Analu Brash (1-2); and Mark Oshiro (10-1) knocked out previously unbeaten Chris Cariaso (6-1) in the first round. ...